Working remotely for companies is becoming more prevalent as the impact over COVID-19 continues to rise in the U.S. With states increasing to mandate a “stay-at-home” directive, residents are to avoid nonessential outings.
Although many employees in the equipment finance industry have been working remotely for years, this is a unique situation for most companies. This is a good time to adopt an effective remote-work strategy. It allows you to continue delivering results throughout your organization.
Have patience embracing working remotely
Working remotely will require some adjustments. Be patient with yourself. You might find that you are not as productive as you were in the office. People have a routine that worked for them when they worked in the office. They can incorporate similar routines at home. Make your coffee and check your email in the morning. Instant message your teammates in the morning and say “Good morning”. Doing things that were part of your daily routine in the office will help you embrace working remotely now.
Use the resources available to you
As a result of a remote workforce, we’re seeing a lot more demand and network traffic. We are seeing how it is affecting internet networks to new levels across the country. Many home wi-fi networks are not set up to handle so much online activity. This has caused delays and disruptions in video conferencing and projects.
During this time, the LTi Client Hub fosters engagement by reading and sharing ideas with other ASPIRE and LeasePlus users. These topics include day-to-day business operations as well as collaborating with LTi. The Hub centralizes all of your questions and answers you have regarding LTi products right at your fingertips. It also is an interactive way that you can participate in forums with your peers in respective industries.
There are specific forums where our customers can benefit by talking to each other and discussing how COVID-19 is affecting their business. These forums allow our customers to understand how their peers are adjusting and helping their customers through this difficult time.
Establish a designated space
Sometimes this can be the most overlooked aspect of working from home. However, a dedicated workstation is essential in helping you be successful at home. Creating a professional, designated environment will instinctively get you into a “work mode”.
Create a routine and stick to it
Setting up a strict schedule and sticking to a schedule is not only good for your wellbeing. It will also help keep you on track and ensure that you are on target to hit all your deliverables. Having a consistent routine will help your mind from wandering and allow you to increase your productivity at home.
If you and your spouse are working from home and taking care of the children, sit down together and set up a daily schedule. This ensures you both have blocks of time to focus on meeting your goals and deliverables. Plan the night before with your spouse about meetings you have coming up the next day. This will help both of you be clear on who is on “kid duty” at certain times.
Set up and maintain boundaries
Even though you are working remotely, treat this as if you are at your office right now. Some things can wait until after 5 p.m. Whether that’s chatting with your spouse or starting a new project around the house, stick to a schedule during workhours. Try to also maintain the same hours you log in at work. You don’t want to feel overloaded with working extra hours just because you are home.
Check in with your coworkers
When in doubt, stick to over-communication. If there were a question you would normally ask your boss in person, set up a phone call to discuss. Update your team on what you are working on. When your entire team is working remotely, it’s easy to feel siloed. Keep the communication going by daily team calls and group instant messages!
Allow yourself flexibility to inspire innovation
Working remotely allows for flexibility to plan your schedule and workspace. Flexibility and innovation go hand-in-hand in the equipment finance industry. Flexible workplaces are proven to increase an organization’s productivity. Employees who have more control over their schedules are more satisfied. This will lead to higher levels of innovation. Now is the time to take advantage of both.
LTi has always made employee engagement and a productive workplace a top priority. We know employee engagement is more important than ever now. We want to ensure our employees have the resources and tools they need.
You can read our full article about how to keep your best employees here: How to Keep Your Best Employee from Quitting the Team
